Chapter 917 - Obtaining the Exquisite Lotus
Chapter 917: Obtaining the Exquisite Lotus
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Jun Mo Xie’s gaze was like a high and lofty monarch, wielding sway over her destiny! In that moment, she only felt a sense of helplessness in her heart, as if she couldn’t resist!
“Speak. I’m taking away all of this Exquisite Lotus! Can I or can I not!” Jun Mo Xie pressed fearsomely.
He couldn’t help but to be anxious. There were so many people back home who needed this Exquisite Lotus. If he waited for 500 years to reap one lotus root, then... even the most beautiful flower would have wilted long ago! Not only would he not achieve his intended purpose after bringing it back, it would end up creating more awkwardness. With just a single grain sized root, it would be wrong to give or deprive it from anyone.
The reason he’d asked her so forcefully right after succeeding in intimidating her was precisely to not give Qiao Ying any time to react. Although doing it like this was somewhat despicable, Jun Mo Xie couldn’t care less for the sake of his own happiness.
“Ah.. you can... not you cannot you cannot!” Qiao Ying jumped with shock, very nearly giving her approval. Shaking her head rapidly, she spat out three cannots in quick succession. “Young Master Jun, one must be honorable with their words! We agreed that it would be one stalk, so you definitely can’t take more! This is a matter of principle; there’s no room for discussion!”
Pausing for a moment, she continued. “Besides... our Heaven Saint Palace has only been able to raise the initial single stalk of lotus into the current eight stalks... It could be easily imagined how hard it is to raise them! Truthfully, us giving you one stalk is already a great waste... you clearly wouldn’t know how to nurture it, not knowing what it likes or dislike... If you are unable to satisfy a single facade of its needs, it will quickly wilt! I’m not trying to scare or threaten you!”
“Hm? I’d like to hear the details.” Jun Mo Xie’s tone suddenly became gentle and pleasing to the ear.
“You’re such a scoundrel!” Qiao Ying shook her head with exasperation as she explained carefully. “Firstly, the Exquisite Lotus must be planted in innate clean water, preferably water condensed from Spiritual Qi. Also, it needs to live in a place with exceptionally dense Heaven Earth Spiritual Qi in order to survive.
Jun Mo Xie made an ‘oh’ sound with disinterest as he thought to himself. That’s not a problem at all. This daddy’s place has plenty of Spiritual Qi, even more concentrated than your mountain. There’s so many heavenly spirit herbs growing there happily; I refuse to believe that I can’t keep a stalk of Exquisite Lotus alive.
“Secondly, do you see this pond? Although it looks like a simple pond, it’s actually made with 30,000 pieces of innate spirit jade, with equal amounts of warm and cold nature to attain a fine balance of temperature. In order to gather all this spirit jade, we’ve gathered nearly all the spirit jade in the world together, and even the Misty Illusory Manor contributed a portion! This is practically a sum of wealth huge enough that no one can handle! Only such a condition will be enough to allow the Exquisite Lotus to slowly grow!”
“30,000 pieces of innate spirit jade?” Jun Mo Xie felt his mouth turning dry. Not to mention 30,000 pieces; he didn’t even have a single piece! In that moment, he could not help but to eye the pond sinisterly, thinking of bringing the entire pond away!
As he pondered, a thought suddenly struck him. “Can the innate spirit jade be replaced with Eternally Warm Soft Jade?”
“Eternally Warm Soft Jade only has the properties of warmth and softness. It does not produce any cold effects. So although its rarity is not lower than innate spirit jade, it’s not enough to nurture the Exquisite Lotus.” Qiao Ying looked at him queerly, seemingly somewhat suspicious that he would have such good stuff.
“How difficult!” Jun Mo Xie furrowed his brows and narrowed his eyes as he continued asking. “What will happen if it’s replaced with a Heaven Earth Spirit Vein?”
“What kind of joke is that?” Qiao Ying smiled lightly and said. “Using a Heaven Earth Spirit Vein to cultivate the Exquisite Lotus is naturally much better than innate spirit jade. Furthermore, it will greatly improve the speed of the Exquisite Lotus’ growth, shortening the time required for it to reach maturity. With a Heaven Earth Spirit Vein, all you need is a pool with water condensed from Spiritual Qi and nothing else. The Exquisite Lotus will grow at several times the speed, and... even have more amazing effects. However, that is only a thing that exists in legends, only found deep underground; moreover, the continent is constantly shifting, resulting in Spiritual Qi being scattered all the time... who will be able to find a Heaven Earth Spirit Vein?”
Qiao Ying pouted with disdain as she rolled her eyes at Jun Mo Xie. “Even if you know a place with a Heaven Earth Spirit Vein, who has the ability to retrieve it? Move an entire mountain aside, and dig out the entire thing fully intact? That’s basically an impossible and unrealistic matter!”
Jun Mo Xie sighed and shook his head in a ‘sad’ manner. “How depressing...” In his heart, he was actually whooping with joy. F*ck! This daddy indeed has this legendary thing! And it’s even a top quality and well aged one of several hundred thousand years old!
“The third condition for it to grow is...” At this point, Jun Mo Xie could no longer hear Qiao Ying’s words. He was incredibly excited, and his entire mind was filled with thoughts on the various possibilities.
But although he was bursting with joy on the inside, he still had to display a troubled and depressed face on the outside. This was actually a high level acting skill. Fortunately, Young Master Jun had received plenty of training, and he managed to act out this show perfectly.
Compared to the nourishment of the Heaven Earth Spirit Vein, all these methods of nurturing... were simply all bullsh*t!
Jun Mo Xie made a quick estimation in his heart. The Heaven Earth Spirit Vein he had could easily support a small to medium sized lotus pond. At the very least, it should be seven or eight times larger than this little pond here.
“Then... how many lotus seeds do you have? Can I take some back with me in addition to the one stalk of Exquisite Lotus?”
Jun Mo Xie looked pitifully at Qiao Ying. “Even if there’s a tiny bit of possibility, it’s still better than nothing... Elder sister Qiao, you must satisfy this tiny wish of mine ah...”
The way he looked at her was as if she would be the most heartless and cold person in the world if she didn’t give it to him.
“There are indeed some seeds whenever the Exquisite Lotus blooms once every 500 years. We’ve also accumulated quite a few of those seeds... However, the difficulty of nurturing the seeds is tens of times harder than nurturing the Exquisite Lotus!” Qiao Ying said hesitantly. “If I gave it to you and you couldn’t raise it, it would only be a waste of natural treasure.”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m just giving it a try...” Jun Mo Xie said warmly. “Besides, I’m not asking for a lot. I’ll be satisfied with just a hundred or so seeds...”
“Hundred or so?!” Qiao Ying’s eyes nearly fell out of her sockets. “In the few thousand years, our Heaven Saint Palace had only managed to collect no more than 50, 60 seeds! And the moment you open your mouth, you want a hundred?! You truly dare to ask ah!”
“In that case, I’ll just take 50...” Jun Mo Xie said with a light chuckle as he shrugged his shoulders in a helpless manner. “You guys already have so many fully full grown ones...”
“No way!” Qiao Ying rejected flatly. After considering for a long time, she finally relented. “At most... I can give you five! That’s already more than what I have the ability to give.”
“Elder sister... you’re practically killing me ah! Five seeds, to think you had the heart to say that!” Jun Mo Xie cried out. “Didn’t that Wu Shan Yun say just now that I can take away anything I want other than the Exquisite Lotus? You can’t be that miserly right?”
“Eight seeds.”
“Too little! I have to take at least 40!”
“Jun Mo Xie, you’re deliberately making trouble! Ten seeds, nothing more!”
“30 seeds... that’s the absolute lowest I can go. And lower and my trip here today would have been meaningless, and Wu Shan Yun’s words would mean nothing... To think that I went so far as to enlighten the crowd and did such a huge favor to everyone, and yet you wouldn’t give me even a few seeds... How are you so hard hearted and cruel?”
***
After a round of intense bargaining, Qiao Ying lost to Young Master Jun in the battle of words, finally parting with 20 seeds. Jun Mo Xie smiled widely in his heart, satisfied with his gains. In actual fact, obtaining just 10 seeds would be a pretty good deal. But now that he’d managed to get 20, it was a bonus...
Qiao Ying’s face was exceedingly bitter, and her head buzzed with confusion even until now. How did she end up taking step after step back, finally agreeing to take out 20 seeds? This... did those words really come out of her mouth?
What she didn’t know was that although her age was great, her experience and interaction with the outside world was pitifully little. Secondly, Jun Mo Xie’s mouth was among the best in the world. If he claimed that his skill in arguing was number two, no one in this world would dare to call themselves first. Thirdly and most importantly, Young Master Jun had also secretly used some of the Soul Sedating Technique in his words.
In order to prevent Qiao Ying from noticing, he’d only used a tiny bit to influence her slightly. But as the argument between the two grew more heated, Qiao Ying would not be able to notice even if she was more careful. In the end, she was easily tricked by this scoundrel...
Right now, that particular scoundrel was feeling extremely proud in his heart. As expected of an all chest no brain lass. This girl’s breasts were definitely not small! At the very least, it seemed unlikely to cover it with a single hand, and needs at least two hands to grasp it firmly. As for the degree of surface area two hands could cover, it would require some personal hands-on testing to be sure...
Under the influence of his excitement at having achieved his goal, he nearly stretched out his hands to “measure” Qiao Ying’s chest size. Fortunately, he hadn’t done that... otherwise, this great beauty Qiao would most likely have rescinded her promise and given him a good beating to boot...
Since the business bargaining was finished, the only thing left to do was to complete the deal.
Qiao Ying returned to her residence, retrieved 20 seeds, and passed them to Jun Mo Xie. As for the matter of moving the fully grown lotus stalk, it was a huge headache. “Jun Mo Xie, this... how will you take this away?”
“Dig it out for me, and I will naturally have a method to bring it away!” Jun Mo Xie said without so much as a pause.
Qiao Ying felt her anger rushing up her chest once again. Could it be that this bastard wants to burn the bridge after crossing it? Right now, they haven’t even crossed the bridge, and he’s already anxious to burn the bridge...
In her fit of rage, she was tempted to directly throw him into the pond to dig for himself. However, she could not bear to do such a thing. After all, she had been taking care of the Exquisite Lotus for so many years, and she’d already formed some attachment to them. If the Exquisite Lotus died because of her... Qiao Ying would not forgive herself...
After thinking for a long time, she still carefully dug one stalk of lotus out and placed it on a large piece of milky white jade. After that, she placed it in a small spiritual jade box, filled it with water condensed from Spiritual Qi, and passed it to Jun Mo Xie...